While the PLAAF already fields a capable long-range strategic bomber in the H-6, many of China's regional neighbours will likely receive with alarm the news that it is to develop a new platform given the country's recent willingness to use its armed forces to advance its territorial claims and ambitions in the South China Sea in particular. In early May 2016, Chinese state television revealed that an H-6K bomber of the PLAAF flew over China's newly reclaimed facilities on Fiery Cross Reef for just such a purpose.